Series

Description

While attending seminary, young woman minister and Colorado River boatman Rev. Nanci Chladek becomes concerned with the problems of her suitemate, a shy, withdrawn girl by the name of Sarah Lackamp. Sarah's parents are missionaries getting set to return to their African mission station, so all too soon she will have to live outside of the protection of school and family. Nanci feels her friend isn't ready for life on her own. She does pull Sarah out of her shell a little, but it turns out that Sarah's problems are different and deeper than Nanci could have believed. How can Nanci help Sarah live in the big bad world of today? What changes will Sarah have to finally accept in order to make it on her own? Warning: There is Christianity, faith, and religion in this story.

Note to Readers added by Wes Boyd on Home Page of the story

The Reverend Nanci story is complicated and spread over several parts of the Dawnwalker and Reverend Nanci series. I consider Down By the Riverside to be Book One of the Reverend Nanci series, as well as a part of the Dawnwalker series, because it involves a lot of Canyon Tours characters in the Grand Canyon. There will be more of this new series to come in the future.

However, there are two books in the Dawnwalker series that tell a significant part of Nanci’s story, and probably could be referred to as “prequels.”

The first is Dawnwalker itself. In that book, Nanci is a self-centered teenage playgirl with no sense of responsibility and whose only objective is to have fun, not realizing that she’s on a serious slide downhill. While she’s only a small part of the book, the reaction of other characters to her actions play a big part of the whole story.

The second prequel is Canyon Fires. While Nanci’s recovery, redemption, and conversion is a part of the book, it is only one of several story lines, although in my opinion Nanci’s is the most powerful.

Nanci also has cameo appearances in several other Dawnwalker stories, most notably River Rat, but most of what happens in those cameos is recapitulated in Down By the Riverside.

For a character who was first cast as a semi-villain and was something of a throwaway, Nanci and I have come a long, long way. – WB